Vertigo have started recovering themselves over the past few weeks, announcing new projects to cover the holes left by Hellblazer and Karen Berger. On top of the news that Astro City’s return will be through Vertigo comes a new announcement revealing that Chris Sprouse will return to the character Tom Strong, whom he co-created, for a new miniseries this July. He’ll be joined on the story by frequent collaborator Peter Hogan.
This is a project which has been teased for a few years now. Tom Strong was first created by Sprouse and Alan Moore all the way back in 1999. The solicitation for issue #1 says:
It’s the return of Tom Strong—too bad he’s powerless! The lives of his daughter Tesla and her unborn child both hang in the balance, and there’s nothing Tom can do to save them…until he remembers the one thing that just might. To find it, he and Val Var Garm must journey to the far side of the galaxy, and the mysterious world known as…TERRA OBSCURA!
“and there’s nothing Tom can do to save them…until he remembers the one thing that just might.”
Whatever people can find in Alan Moore’s dustbin?
Peter Hogan has, to the best of my knowledge, Alan Moore’s full blessing to continue on this series. He was writing for Tales of Tom Strong alongside Moore, as well. And the other half of the creative team on the original Tom Strong series, Chris Sprouse, is still with it. So, not really ‘Whatever people can find in Alan Moore’s dustbin,’ in this instance.
So…….Vertigo is the new Wildstorm?
I wish these cut-and-paste press releases included more of the Beat’s journalistic voice.
Hmm, Tom Strong powerless? Sure, he was stronger than most people due to his upbringing, but he never had super powers. Hopefully they mean it metaphorically…
So if this can happen, why can’t the rest of Top Ten season 2? Does Gene Ha cost that much more than Chris Sprouse?
“Whatever people can find in Alan Moore’s dustbin?”
This is a Terra Obscura series, so it’ll be largely about characters that Alan Moore found in someone else’s dustbin.
It’s Tom Strong fer chrissakes!!! By the original artist and one of the original writers!!!! I’m down!!!!
Nice news – but I wish someone working at Vertigo would announce what Vertigo the brand/imprint is now.
With this and Astro City, looks like the “cutting-edge mature readers imprint” schtick is gone. Which kind of saddens me. No offense to what Wildstorm did, with its own creator-driven-creator-owned books (liked that imprint too, just in its own separate form).
Perhaps the Beat could flex its journalistic muscles and ask Hank Kanalz or whoever for an official heads-up…
Kate: This is a Terra Obscura series, so it’ll be largely about characters that Alan Moore found in someone else’s dustbin.
By the same logic, other dustbin-fodder of Moore’s would include Marvelman, Watchmen, and the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. The thing is, this is his particular forté – taking old straw, and weaving it into new gold.
My “dustbin” comment is an allusion to an earlier post that described the creators of this comic (including the principle character’s co-creator) in such unflattering terms.
Wasn’t this done in FF annual #3 or somesuch?
Of the few folks besides Alan Moore who contributed scripts to the ABC line, Peter Hogan was by far the best. His work carefully followed the style and the underlying concerns that Moore created for Tom Strong and Terra Obscura. His characterizations were most like Moore’s own, and the events he concocted seemed to fit best with the world that Moore had created. The other “fill-in” writers for Tom Strong seemed to get the tone wrong, or made the plots too precious, or presented other small or large faults. Hogan’s writing was perhaps given an extra boost by his close contact with Moore – or perhaps his collaboration with Chris Sprouse, the other co-creator. Their “Tom Strong and the Robots of Doom” was a great follow-up, and I have high hopes for the new series.
I have a question for Hogan and Sprouse, if I ever get the chance to ask them. In Moore’s original run the conflicts often (but not always) ended reconciliation or rapprochement. Hogan’s stories have twice brought more severely irredeemable antagonists to a prison planet (Twyla and Tiberius Strong, Ingrid Weiss and Albrecht)… I wonder if Hogan and Sprouse have an endgame planned where this is concerned?
It seems that Vertigo is being turned into a dumping ground for ex-ABC series. ‘The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen Omnibus’ is already out until the logo and I believe the next ‘Promethea’ collected edition is being solicited as a Vertigo title. Strangely, the label seems to be turning into the one thing it’s always (wrongly) been accused of: an Alan Moore farm.
I think Vertigo is simply being shifted into the non-DCU titles that DC wants to sell… and that quite frankly DC would be insane to cancel otherwise (e.g. Fables, et al.) because of their consistent high sales. So it’s not quite so vertiginous as an outlet for ‘adult/mature’ titles as it’s… DC Entertainment’s other (more consistently profitable) stuff.
The New Vertigo is simply a catch-all imprint for titles not in the New 52 DCU, not digital-first, or DC Kids. If anything, the New 52 universe represents the “Wildstorm-ization” of the old DCU, while the old Wildstorm’s more worthwhile titles from the former Homage and America’s Best Comics sub-imprints are now filling the ranks of former cancelled Vertigo titles like HELLBLAZER. So now Vertigo’s no longer an all-horror/dark/weird genre of titles — get over it. One could argue that it’s been moving in that direction since the days of 100 BULLETS and FABLES anyway.
So give it a break. DC *should* have some kind of publishing imprint to publish good comics titles for an adult audience. God knows the New 52 Universe is printing little worth reading.
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